Big Tech Grilled By Senate & Why Bugs Love Lights
February 1, 2024
Hello, readers – happy Thursday! Today, we’ll be talking about Big Tech testimony, the Middle East, Thailand’s royal defamation law, a Russia/Ukraine prisoner swap, Chinese hackers, Fani Willis, & why insects are drawn to lights.
Here’s some good news: for the first time, an infant great white shark is believed to have been caught on camera, likely not long after it was born. The birthing habits of great whites are largely unknown to the scientific community, so this is a major breakthrough. Also, an experimental pain medicine that might serve as an alternative to opioids (with fewer risks) met the primary goal of a late-stage clinical trial this week.
“We are not here to curse the darkness, but to light the candle that can guide us thru that darkness to a safe and sane future.” – John F. Kennedy
Taking Techies To Task
Social media executives are being grilled by U.S. lawmakers concerned about child safety on their platforms. Tech CEOs including Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg, X’s Linda Yaccarino, and TikTok’s Shou Zi Chew were put in the hot seat in Washington yesterday, where lawmakers said they failed to protect children from sexual exploitation on their sites and apps.
Democratic Senator Dick Durbin said that social media apps have “given predators powerful new tools to exploit children,” and GOP Senator Lindsey Graham told Zuckerberg, “You have blood on your hands.” Internal Meta emails show the company’s leaders weighing the financial and political consequences of not rolling out more stringent child safety regulations. Another document showed Zuckerberg vetoing hiring 45 new staff members to look out for children’s well-being on the company’s platforms.
The hearings are part of a growing focus on social media sites from Washington, and follow up on other hearings targeting child safety online. Last year alone, 13 states passed laws attempting to make social media safer for children, and other states are expected to pass similar regulations this year. Federal lawmakers are also pushing the Kids Online Safety Act, though only Snap has announced its support for the bill.
A Flood Of News In Gaza
As Gaza continues to experience heavy bombardment by the IDF, the diplomatic situation in the Middle East continues to develop. So far, almost 27,000 Palestinians have been killed in the conflict according to Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry, and over 66,000 people are reportedly injured.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has reportedly asked the State Department for a review of policy options for a possible recognition of a Palestinian state after the war in Gaza reaches its end (whenever that might be). The move marks a distinct change in America’s stance towards Palestine, as the White House has strongly resisted any form of Palestinian statehood for decades. American diplomats have reportedly weighed trading the normalization of Saudi-Israeli relations for the recognition of a Palestinian state.
Meanwhile, Israel is focusing on dismantling the tunnel networks that have made Hamas so elusive. On Tuesday, the IDF confirmed that it would tackle the tunnel problem by … flooding them with water. The strategy has received condemnation from the U.N., with one spokeswoman saying the plan “will cause severe damage to the already fragile water and sewage infrastructure.” She added that, without careful planning, flooding the tunnels will also lead to groundwater contamination in an area already struggling to access drinkable water.
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This Monarchy Runs A Thai-ght Ship
- On Wednesday, Thailand’s Constitutional Court ruled that the progressive Move Forward party will have to stop pushing for changes in the country’s royal defamation law. Currently, that law quashes any criticism of the royal institution by penalizing anyone who criticizes the royals with up to 15 years in prison. Over 260 people have been prosecuted under the law since 2020, when mass protests against the monarchy broke out.
- The Move Forward party grew to prominence in the 2023 general election, campaigning hard against royal defamation laws and in favor of other pro-democracy measures. The party saw wide success in the election, but was barred from actually taking power when the country’s Senate blocked their candidate from becoming prime minister. The suit against Move Forward’s anti-monarchy campaign was filed by a royalist lawyer, and the party’s loss (supported by all nine of the court’s judges) means that the party might end up dissolved for violating the law.
No Crash Will Stop Trade Season
- Despite a mysterious airplane crash in a Russian border region which, according to the Kremlin, killed 65 captured Ukrainian soldiers, Kyiv and Moscow have gone through with a major prisoner exchange. Russia has claimed that the plane was taken down using a U.S.-supplied Patriot missile, while Ukraine says that there were no prisoners aboard the plane. No matter who’s actually telling the truth about last week’s crash, 195 Russian military personnel were traded for 207 Ukrainian service members.
- Ukraine says that 50 prisoner exchanges have been executed since the war’s beginning, bringing a total of 3035 Ukrainian soldiers home. The 207 soldiers released back to Ukraine didn’t include the 65 people allegedly killed in the crash, and Ukraine has confirmed that the soldiers who supposedly died in the incident were originally scheduled to be sent back to Kyiv in an exchange. Russia says it will not stop prisoner exchanges despite the crash.
Additional World News
- France farmers protests see 79 arrested as tractors snarl Paris traffic (CBS)
- U.S. and China hold high-level talks on the fentanyl crisis (NBC)
- Germany warns EU falling short on pledge to supply Ukraine with ammo (Guardian)
- Ukraine has improved conditions for its Hungarian minority. It might not be enough for Viktor Orbán (AP)
- Italy lodges protest after citizen led in chains into Budapest court (Guardian)
Middle East Reads
- A Journey Through a West Bank on the Brink (NYT, $)
- Swedish police destroy object outside Israeli embassy in Stockholm (BBC)
- ‘We are dying slowly.’ Children go to bed hungry and parents scavenge for food as famine looms in Gaza (CNN)
The Hacking Horror Picture Show
- On Wednesday, FBI Director Christopher Wray warned the House Committee on the Chinese Communist Party that Chinese hackers are preparing to “wreak havoc” on American infrastructure. His comments come after the DOJ announced that back in December, a court-authorized operation had discovered a hacking group backed by the Chinese government that tried to interfere with “critical American infrastructure.”
- National cyber director at the White House Harry Coker Jr., director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency Jen Easterly, and commander of the U.S. Cyber Command Gen. Paul Nakasone issued similar warnings. Officials are concerned that China may place malware in equipment such as water-treatment plants, electrical grids, or transportation systems and bring them down.
A Concerning Courtroom Romance
- Trump co-defendant Mike Roman has made claims that Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis and the prosecutor she hired to lead Georgia’s 2020 election interference case against former President Trump, Nathan Wade, were in a secret relationship around the time Wade was hired onto the case. Roman also claims that Willis and Wade improperly financially benefitted from Wade’s employment in working on the racketeering case.
- The judge overseeing the election case ordered an evidentiary hearing over the alleged misconduct. Willis and Wade were subpoenaed yesterday to testify about the relationship. Willis has said the accusations are racist, and both she and Wade deny there was a romance. Roman asked the court to dismiss the indictment against him and disqualify Willis and Wade from the case, and Trump’s team cited the allegations in a request to dismiss the 13 charges against him as well.
Additional USA Reads
- Man arrested after video post showed severed head of his father, police say, amid political rant that stayed online for hours (CNN)
- Hours of additional video show what officers did and said after fatal beating of Tyre Nichols (NBC)
- Oregon leaders declare 90-day state of emergency in downtown Portland to address fentanyl crisis (CNN)
- Convoy heading to Eagle Pass to rally against migrant influx, Biden border handling (CBS)
- Trump set to meet with Teamsters as he targets Biden support (NBC)
- Utah is the latest state to ban diversity, equity and inclusion efforts on campus and in government (AP)
Why Moths Can’t Take The Spotlight
- Those annoying moths fluttering around your porch lamp? According to a new study published in the journal Nature Communications, they’re not as dumb as you think. While it might look like the insects are bashing their heads against the light for no reason, the study claims that artificial lights have messed with millions of years of evolution.
- “For millions of years, insects oriented themselves by sensing that the sky is light, the ground is dark,” said one entomologist. When you introduce artificial lights into the environment, then, their sense of up and down gets topsy-turvy. “Insects have a navigational problem,” said another biologist. “They’re accustomed to using light as a cue to know which way is up.”
- Normally, the bugs will “tilt their backs toward the light,” said one of the study’s authors. But when you leave a light on at, say, street-lamp level, the bugs will endlessly orbit the light with their backs turned to it. In the presence of lights that shoot straight up, like searchlights, some bugs will even flip entirely upside down and crash into the ground thanks to their evolutionary behaviors.
Additional Reads
- A new FAFSA setback means many college financial aid offers won’t come until April (NPR)
- Parrots Use Their Beaks to Swing Like Monkeys (NYT, $)
- Oklahoma demands teachers return bonuses of up to $50,000 paid in error (Guardian)
- Startup news site The Messenger shutters less than a year after its launch (NBC)
- Takeaways from the AP’s look at the role of conspiracy theories in American politics and society (AP)
- What a 45,000-year-old pit of bones reveals about our earliest human ancestors (NBC)
- Taylor Drift and Clark W. Blizzwald take top honors in Minnesota snowplow-naming contest (AP)